HOGMANAY, the name in Scotland and some parts of the north of England for New Year's Eve, as also for the cake then given to the children. On the morning of the 31st of December the children in small bands go from door to door singing: "Hogmanay Trollolay Gie's o' your white bread and nane o' your grey"; and begging for small gifts or alms. These usually take the form of an oaten cake. The derivation of the term has been much disputed. Cotgrave (1611) says: "It is the voice of the country folks begging small presents or New Year's gifts ... an ancient term of rejoicing derived from the Druids, who were wont the first of each January to go into the woods, where, having sacrificed and banquetted together, they gathered mistletoe, esteeming it excellent to make beasts fruitful and most soverayne against all poyson." And he connects the word, through such Norman French forms as _hoguinane_, with the old French _aguilanneuf_, which he explains as _au gui-l'an-neuf_, "to the mistletoe! the New Year!"--this being (on his interpretation) the Druidical salutation to the coming year as the revellers issued from the woods armed with boughs of mistletoe. But though this explanation may be accepted as containing the truth in referring the word to a French original, Cotgrave's detailed etymology is now repudiated by scientific philologists, and the identical French _aguilanneuf_ remains, like it, in obscurity. HOGSHEAD, a cask for holding liquor or other commodities, such as tobacco, sugar, molasses, &c.; also a liquid measure of capacity, varying with the contents. As a measure for beer, cider, &c., it equals 54 gallons. A statute of Richard III. (1483) fixed the hogshead of wine at 63 wine-gallons, i.e. 52(1/2) imperial gallons. The etymology of the word has been much discussed. According to Skeat, the origin is to be found in the name for a cask or liquid measure appearing in various forms in several Teutonic languages, in Dutch _oxhooft_ (modern _okshoofd_), Dan. _oxehoved_, O. Swed. _oxhufvod_, &c. The word should therefore be "oxhead," and "hogshead" is a mere corruption. It has been suggested that the name arose from the branding of such a measure with the head of an ox (see _Notes and Queries_, series iv. 2, 46, note by H. Tiedeman). The _New English Dictionary_ does not attempt any explanation of the term, and takes "hogshead" as the original form, from which the forms in other languages have been corrupted. The earlier Dutch forms _hukeshovet_ and _hoekshoot_ are nearer to the English form, and, further, the Dutch for "ox" is os.